Wine bottles are generally closed by means of a cork or stopper, and by means of a cap of tinfoil or a plastic material (synthetic resin) mounted on the neck of the bottle and covering said cork or stopper. Such caps have two objects of which one is to improve the appearance of the bottle, and the other is to provide a means for detecting initial opening of the bottle, since it is fair to presume that the bottle has not been opened following an initial bottling operation if, and as long as, the aforementioned cap is intact.
Stoppers made of natural cork have severe limitations, as a result of which experimental work has been conducted to substitute synthetic elastomers for natural cork. The aforementioned limitations result from the fact that cork is a natural product which cannot be obtained in sufficiently uniform quality. Defective stoppers of natural cork tend to adversely affect the taste of wine in bottles closed with such stoppers. Wine bottles closed by stoppers of natural cork must always be maintained in a horizontal position, i.e. during storage in a cellar as well as in transit, since a stopper of natural cork provides a gas-tight seal only as long as it is wetted by the liquid contents of the bottle. The price of natural cork has always been subject to significant fluctuations, and its price is currently extremely high due to a shortage of natural cork and because of large increases in the cost of labor.
A drawback of the use of the combination of cork and cap used preponderantly for sealing or closing wine bottles is the fact that it requires several operational steps, namely that of inserting the cork into the neck of the bottle and the subsequent mounting of the cap thereon.
It is common practice to use stoppers of a synthetic elastomer for closing champagne bottles. Stoppers of a synthetic elastomer have not been used in the past to any appreciable extent in connection with wine bottles. The reason underlying this fact is that closing champagne bottles, on the one hand, and closing of wine bottles, on the other hand, are two very different problems. There is an excess pressure in champagne bottles and this calls for a special shaping of the stopper for a champagne bottle, a special design of its neck and presence of a wire cage, or metal strip, for maintaining the stopper inside of the neck of the bottle against the action of pressure therein, and also performing the function of indicating whether or not the bottle has previously been opened.
In the past a number of bottle stopper means have been evolved particularly intended for wine bottles.
It is the principal object of this invention to provide stoppers which are suitable to be used in connection with wine bottles, and which are not subject to the drawbacks and limitations of prior art devices of this description.